Page 117 – Establishing Shot

Monthly Movie Round-Up: July

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Establishing Shot

Resident Evil Retribution — *Resident Evil: Retribution*

Every month A Place for Film will bring you a selection of films from our group of regular bloggers. Even though these films aren’t currently being screened at the IU Cinema, this series will reflect the varied programming that can be found at the Cinema, as well as demonstrate the eclectic tastes of the bloggers. Each contributor has picked one film that they saw this month that they couldn’t wait to share with others. Keep reading to find out what discoveries these cinephiles have made, as well as some of the old friends they’ve revisited. (more…)

Leland Palmer’s Song and Dance

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Laura Ivins

The television show Twin Peaks (David Lynch & Mark Frost, 1990-1991) is known for its music. Its otherwordly soundtrack transports the audience into a universe where retro nostalgia meets the fantastic. In this video, I look at how musical set-pieces are used to illuminate the character of Leland Palmer, father of murdered teen Laura Palmer. (more…)

Some of Them Promised They’d Never Fall in Love: Peter Bogdanovich’s They All Laughed (1981)

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Jack Miller

Audrey Hepburn in They All Laughed — Audrey Hepburn in *They All Laughed*

Guest post by Jack Miller.

“I wanted to make a personal picture, but not a personal picture like an indie prod. I wanted to hide it, like the old filmmakers in the studio system did. Hide it behind a genre. The genre was private detectives.” — Bogdanovich
“It gives me an ocean of mixed-up emotion — I’ll have to work it out in a song.” — John Prine

The early 1980s have retroactively come to be regarded by auteurists as a decidedly transitional period for the American studio system. The exciting stylistic transgressions of the New Hollywood movement, which had materialized in the late 1960s with the appearance of films like Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and which blossomed into fruition throughout the ‘70s with the unprecedented studio financing of genuinely idiosyncratic work like Robert Altman’s 3 Women (1977), was experiencing its last gasps of life around this time as production companies began backing more sterilized, streamlined commercial fare. Although Peter Bogdanovich came of age as a filmmaker with other ‘movie brat’ directors like Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma during this earlier, countercultural period, as a cinephile he’s always remained a staunch classicist, having made a name for himself by conducting book-length interviews with Golden Age masters such as Howard Hawks and the notoriously cantankerous John Ford. (more…)

Underseen: Sergei Solovyov’s One Hundred Days After Childhood (1975)

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Nathaniel Sexton

“Underseen” is a new, ongoing series where I highlight exceptional titles that have gone unfairly overlooked or underseen.

“He set out on a journey boring,
wrapped tightly in a cloak he wore.
The coach’s bell, its voice imploring,
rang, rang, and then was heard no more.”
— Mikhail Lermontov

In 1975, Soviet filmmaker and actor Sergei Solovyov won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival for his film Sto dney posle detstva (One Hundred Days After Childhood), thus joining a crowd of illustrious, worldwide filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, and Robert Aldrich. Over four decades later, directors Éric Rohmer, Jan Troell, Asghar Farhari, Miloš Forman, Mia Hansen-Løve, and Richard Linklater, among other greats, have joined this lauded rank of recognized creatives. Rightfully so, Solovyov’s beautifully realized and lyrically rich coming-of-age tale places him among giants, and yet his films have gone virtually unmentioned outside of Russia. (more…)

‘90s Videogame Heroines on the Big Screen

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Establishing Shot

Resident Evil (2002) — *Resident Evil* (2002)

Guest post by Michelle Mastro.

There is nothing like a ‘90s action film. Their usually over-the-top action and special effects garner these flicks a special place in most audiences’ hearts. Their plots might have been cheesy, and their go-to actors obvious choices—the rotating leads often included Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, rarely did these films actually center on heroines, save perhaps for the occasional Linda Hamilton or Milla Jovovich, who mostly stuck with their franchises anyway (the Terminator and Resident Evil series respectively),* and besides, some might even argue that these franchises lie more within the horror than action film genre. (more…)

The Living Manifestation of Destiny: Tom Cruise and His Stunt Persona

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Aja Essex

Onscreen personas — I love ’em, and I suspect many of us do or else we wouldn’t go to see movies featuring our favorite A-list actors and cult commodities at the drop of a dime. There’s something comforting yet inherently fascinating to the idea of an actor or actress playing a character on top of channeling an idea and energy that they’re known for in the wider zeitgeist. Take for example someone like Robert De Niro. We as an audience go in with a preconceived notion as to what a Robert De Niro performance will be because of the persona he’s cultivated over the years. It’ll probably be something exuding measured and traditional masculinity all the while a small stream of menace and danger flows underneath. Sometimes that menace and danger is expected to make an appearance in an geyser-like exhibition (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver); other times it’s chilled into a cold professionalism (Heat, Ronin). In both cases it’s fun to see that persona rub up against comedic foils (Midnight Run, Meet the Parents) and for that persona to be subverted or played with (The King of Comedy). In all these cases it always back to the idea of the throughline of who Robert De Niro is onscreen and how appears to us in the public eye. (more…)